Chapter 18
***
Heo Eun-hee added in a friendly tone.
"I heard that Dae-jin's grandson is a founding member of a famous private equity firm in the U.S. He's very rich, richer than most chaebol's children."
Do-geon didn't say much in response. Honestly, it was never pleasant to talk to a woman who was a brothel madam.
There was no way he'd sit in the same room with such a lowlife unless it was Jeong Jae-yeon. Of course, if you look at it that way, he was wrong to get involved with her in the first place.
He ignored Heo Eun-hee's sarcasm and said.
"I'm sure you've heard the story from Mr. Yoon, and I'd like to get straight to the point."
"Yes, I heard the gist of it, but.................. I hope it's not too embarrassing."
"It's a simple query. I'd appreciate it if you could tell me everything that's even remotely relevant."
"I'll try, of course, confidentiality is my specialty."
He felt pretty bad for her for talking about confidentiality. She shouldn't have gotten paid to be here in the first place.
"..................., then let's get started."
At Do-geon’s words, Mr. Yoon pressed the button on his desk recorder. He rested his callused hands in his lap and began.
"You may know Hong Mi-jin from the Gangnam entertainment world, the woman who used to go by the pseudonym Hong Seri."
"Yes, I know, I worked with her when I was a young lady. It's been 20 years."
"And her daughter, Jeong Jae-yeon, worked at Lamer, where Ms. Heo was the president."
At that question, Heo seemed to get a glimpse of what Do-geon was asking.
"......Yes, I did."
"Did you know Jeong Jae-yeon?"
"Well, not really. I was still close with her mom, but not with her daughter, not really. She just works at our establishment."
"But she worked at a place owned by a friend of her mother's, and you didn't know her at all."
"That's.................. actually because she came to me first and begged me to let her work here."
"She 'begged'?
"At first, I said no, because I didn't really need an employee at the time, but then she begged me, so I said yes, because she had a nice face, so I thought it would be okay. Anyway, she worked there for about a year."
"Did she have any particular reason for working there, or anything suspicious?"
"I didn't talk to her that much. The reason for working there was that she wanted to make money. If there was anything suspicious.................. I don't know."
After saying this, Heo Eun-hee sneaked a glance at the recorder on the table. He could see her head rolling. With a moderate smile, Do-geon spoke reassuringly.
"The obligation of confidentiality is not only on Ms. Heo, but also on our side. There will be no harm done to you in this matter, so please be honest with me."
"Oh, sure, it was a long time ago, so I was trying to remember, um.................. so it was....................."
Heo Eun-hee said nonchalantly, as if she hadn't intended to hide anything from the beginning.
"I'm only telling you this because you're Dae-jin's side.................. That's because there was also a Mr. Han who came to our place, Mr. Han Dong-woo. Did you already know about it?"
Han Dong-woo.
From Heo Eun-hee's mouth, the information he wanted flowed out.
Do-geon clenched his hands. A blue vein stood up on the back of it.
“Jae-yeon was a bit interested in one of the bosses, asking about this and that. One day, she even suggested to me, "Sis, I can take less money..............”
He closed his eyes for a long moment, then opened them, stopping himself from standing up. A shard of light flickered in his black pupils.
“She wanted to go to their room to entertain them.”
Jeong Jae-yeon............... No, Seo Jae-yeon.
He knew she was interesting, but she was more of an object than he thought.
***
Tuk-tuk. His index finger tapped regularly on the steering wheel. Do-geon stared out the window with an expressionless face, waiting for the signal.
The streets of downtown Seoul, packed with crowds and traffic, were all in the Christmas spirit, with blindingly colorful media facades adorning the exterior walls of department stores.
"Of course, I didn't say yes right away, because no matter how good-looking she was, you don't want to look like a beginner when you're serving a boss like Mr. Han. It was so long ago that I don't remember much about it, but .................. I think I probably put some conditions on it."
Heo's voice mingled in his head with the sound of the claxons outside.
"I told her to get some training, then try the other rooms as a rookie, and then I'll see what y she could do and think about it. I'll be honest, I was a little intimidated by the whole thing, because it was so aimless, but she's always been so sweet and nice, so I was willing to listen."
The LEDs on the exterior walls twinkled and changed colors. It's only artificial light, but people beamed and raised their cell phone cameras as if they'd seen something spectacular.
"What? Oh, yeah. She went into the other room a couple times, and I don't know if I should have forced her to go in, but she said she'd do it, and.................. as I recall, she got a lot of name recognition from the beginning, and she's kind of a blue-collar type, so it worked."
Lovers walked hand in hand through the streets, their faces bright. A father wrapped a long shawl around his young daughter.
"I remember she took a lot of the money she earned to the sponsor's office, where they usually set up rich people with girls. The sponsor she wanted, of course, was......the boss."
There were schoolgirls in uniforms by the trees. What's so funny, they stopped walking, holding their stomachs and laughing. Do-geon tried to picture Jae-yeon in uniform, but for some reason it wasn't easy.
"No, we ended up getting banned from one of the bosses' rooms, you know, because I got mixed up with one of the guys and they made a big deal about it, and they shut it down, and I haven't seen her face since."
His focus drifted out the window for a moment. The red and yellow lights in his vision blurred like watered-down ink, then sharpened again.
Yes, he thought, there must be something.
His initial suspicions may have been illogical, but the more he dug into her, the more convinced he became.
It was no coincidence that Jeong Jae-yeon had a way to get Han Yong-seob and then Han Dong-woo involved. She approached Dae-jin with a purpose from the beginning.
However, learning something didn't erase the negative impression of Jeong Jae-yeon. In fact, it made it even more pathetic. She was, and still is, a woman who throws herself into the fray with nothing more than a pretty face. Whatever the purpose, the fact remained that it was a shameless act.
And yet, for some reason................
The signal changed. Do-geon tore his gaze from the window.
Slowly, he stepped on the accelerator. The bright faces on the street slowly receded. White fog gathered at the edges of the windshield. He imagined Jeong Jae-yeon at the age of twenty.
A woman who, while everyone else was full of dreams and expectations for a new life, went to the brothel on her own to approach a man who was old enough to be her father.
A woman who begged the madam to let her work as a prostitute for a year, hoping for a chance.
She started working as a receptionist to get into the room where Han Dong-woo usually went, and brought the money she earned to the sponsor's office to ask for a connection.
But in the end, she failed.
Lights passed by outside the car window. In his mind, the twenty-year-old Jeong Jae-yeon was incompletely assembled based on Heo Eun-hee's words.
But even that was only one part. He still knew nothing about Jae-yeon himself. No motive, no purpose, no sincerity. All the way back to Taehwajae, Do-geon thought about the unanswered questions.
Why did she do it?
The headlights and neon signs that had filled the streets were nowhere to be seen. The yellow streetlights of a quiet residential neighborhood lined the road.
What did she hope for?
Do-geon turned the wheel and turned into the alley. It was where he'd dropped Jae-yeon off. He remembered her face, standing outside the passenger seat, smiling faintly in the sunset.
"I may be embarrassed, but I'm not ashamed."
What was her true appearance?
Suddenly, a white patch of ice fell on the windshield. Do-geon looked up at the sky. Dust-like flakes of snow were falling. Suddenly, he wondered about Jeong Jae-yeon's life. Maybe he always had.
Do-geon decided to admit it.
****
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Teresa (Friday, 25 October 2024 04:23)
waiting for updates for shipwreck